Firebreath
by Valaena The Historyteller
Summary: Just before he goes to tha Wall, a misterious sickness attacks Jon and forces his uncle to face with a truth he has been hidding since birth. But... how will he tell his wife and son he had been liying to them so long? What will happen when he finally, about to leave, breaths out the truth? And with Benjen refusing to take his sister s child to the Wall, danger surrounds them.


Just a little oneshot that had been on my mind lately.

A song of ice and fire and Game of Thrones are not mine.

"You will be accompanying your uncle Benjen to the Night´s Watch" said Ned, feeling the guilt bubbling up inside. He could even see his sister Lyanna´s disappointed face in front of him, but… what other thing could he do? He couldn´t take Jon to King´s Landing, it would be like asking for someone to discover his secret, and he couldn´t leave him in Winterfell, as his wife put it clear that she wouldn´t have him without her husband there. There was still the solution of fostering him off with one of his bannermen, but… who would accept a bastard? Most would take him as an insult. "I…"

"You don´t have to give me any explanations, father. I asked you to join, remember?" the boy said, smiling. Which only helped to increase the guilt inside of his uncle´s heart and the image of Lyanna to turn from disappointed to completely enraged.

_It´s your fault_, she seemed to say, threatening to hit her brother with a practice sword as she was fond to do in the training yard. _You made my baby boy want to join a useless order in the border of the world just because you couldn´t say the truth. Curse you, Ned, curse you to Seven Hells and back!_

"Father… father? Are you listening to me?" the fourteen nameday old boy said as he got himself out of his fantasy. "I asked about how soon is uncle Benjen leaving. I want to leave with you and the king if it´s possible."

"You… he will go out with me and the king, so… start packing now" Eddard said, looking at the boy who should have been a king or at least a prince nod and happily go to pack for a glorified penal colony. To throw his life away. The guilt in his heart nearly made him burst into tears when he imagined facing Lyanna. "Jon" he stopped just as he was reaching the door. "I´m sorry, son."

"For what? I already said I asked for this" the bastard got out of his room, wanting to go straight to his room and pack, perhaps waking up early and pick up the sword he ordered from Mikken for Arya. He was walking to the family wing when he started to feel somehow strange. Each step was getting harder to make and his head was swarming, everything looking completely distorted. His body gave up a few steps away from the family wing, making him fall to the ground in a heap. "What is… happening?"

"And then… Jon?" Robb´s voice got closer. Theon was with him, the person with whom the heir to Winterfell was talking. The ironborn and northerner got closer to the fainted boy, trying to see his face. It was no use, as the boy fall on his chest. "Oh, brother, you drank too much. Do you need help to reach your bed?"

"Robbbbbbbb"

"Lightweight" said the heir to Pike in a mocking tone. Rolling his eyes, the redhead got down to grab his bastard brother. It was then that he touched his skin… his hand retreated in a second. "Maybe I should grab a quill and ink and…"

"Theon, cut the crap, he is burning" the ironborn raised an eyebrow and went down to touch the other boy, only to retreat his hand when the temperature the other boy´s skin had threatened to burn him. he wanted to get away from the bastard, but his friend had other ideas. "Help me take him to maester Luwin. If he continued like this…"

"I don´t think the maester can do much with his condition. I mean, we can barely touch him with how hot he is!"

"Well, we have to at least try! I won´t let my brother die!" the boys grabbed the sick brunette and dragged him to the maester´s room.

-In the maester´s room-

Luwin was having an enjoyable night in his turret after he excused himself from the banquet. It was for the better, after all, he didn´t enjoy them too much. He never did. And in his advanced age… well, everything was better than seeing the king getting drunk and groping serving maids or the queen´s sour face at her husband´s lecherous behaviour. The man poured himself some wine, grabbed a huge tome about the Dance of Dragons and sat down near the fire to read it quietly, like he could only do when the noble family he served was entertaining important guests or asleep…

"MAESTER!" Robb and Theon entered that moment, carrying an unconscious Jon between them, both of them heavily sweating. The ironborn dropped the bastard once he reached the room, as if he were on fire. "Jon fainted after the banquet, he is burning hot and… and… maester Luwin, I don´t think he is breathing very well…"

"Lay him here" the schoolar urged the boys to do, thinking they were exaggerating and perhaps the boy was only suffering the effects of alcohol. Unfortunately, he soon realised that they were pretty much telling the truth. Jon´s breath was much too fast and his body temperature was skyrocketing without any signs of lowering again. If this continued, he could suffer lifelong consequences of whatever disease this was.

"Maester…"

"Go fetch your father, he has to be informed" said the healer, immediately getting into action. He sent Theon to the kitchens to get the maids to gather some ice for a cold bath, passing a wet cloth over Jon´s forehead to cool him down, something he repeated several times in a single minute, trying to lower his temperature. This was a fourteen namedays old child and he couldn´t let him die. He won´t let him.

The maester was so concentrated in saving the young bastard´s life that he didn´t hear the sounds of the banquet outside die for a second and Lord Stark´s cup failing on the table when he heard the words. What he did hear was the Lord of the Castle barging in his study a few minutes later, his wife hot on his trail. And, as every time Jon was in the room, the presence of Lady Catelyn was not good news.

"I´m telling you, Ned, he must be faking his symptoms. He doesn´t want to be sent to the Night´s Watch, so he is faking an illness to stay in Winterfell and do who knows what to overthrow Robb" the redheaded lady turned her eyes to him, who was still hard at work to save him. The woman walked to the sickbed and put a hand over his forehead, trying to prove her point. "His fever has to be fakes. See? I don´t…" Catelyn retracted her hand when the heat became evident. "He does have a fever"

"So I see" Eddard walked towards his nephew and put a hand over his forehead to sense the heat of his body. It was nearly unbearable, scaring him even more. Was this a sign that he must let Jon stay? That he was wrong? Was his sister sending this to protect her son from throwing away his life? To protect Jon from Ned? "Cat…"

"This proved nothing, bastards can get sick…"

"I heard what was happening!" Benjen entered in that moment, sending his brother a glare. Eddard sighed, his brother had been really against sending their sister´s child to the Wall, saying that Lyanna would curse him from the grave if he did so. Then the lord threatened to send the boy on his own through the dangerous paths anyway and the ranger had to bite his tongue. He preferred the boy to travel with someone of trust than alone. He left his brother´s solar glaring at the man, saying that he was taking the wrong choice. "See what you do?"

"This… this is not my fault" Eddard defended himself from the other Stark. "The boy was probably already infected…"

"The Night´s Watch is no place for him and you know it. I don´t care" he glared at Catelyn, silencing her with his hate look. "that your wife doesn´t want him here, I won´t take him to the Wall. Not after this" he tried to take Jon´s hand, but he was too hot for that. "Seven Hells, Ned, he is burning!"

"Yes…" he said with guilt laced in his tone. The boy, Lya´s only legacy, was laying there, dying of a mysterious sickness and he couldn´t do a thing. And to think just before he was thinking to send him to the Wall! Now he wasn´t sure he would ever be able to send him away from home again. "Please, don´t die… please"

"Ned…"

"Leave me, Catelyn, I want to be with my son. Benjen…"

"I´m not moving from here" said the ranger, watching the moment the maids entered with bags of ice, filling a bath with it to dump Jon into and control his fever.

The Stark brothers stayed there and continued to accompany the sick boy for days, while he was burning hot, refusing to attend their duties at the Wall or the King´s court. So headstrong Lord Eddard was, that he even refused to leave with the King when the impatient man decided to leave a few days later. He simply stayed with his brother. By their side, maester Luwin was constantly changing the ice of the bath in hopes to keep Jon´s body temperature under control. The ragged breathing of the boy was so hot that the adult men could see hot it melted ice, making the men fear every one of them will be his last. The fifth day, Luwin sent the two brothers to bed out of concern for their health. It took him a while, but after a few minutes he managed to be alone with Jon. And take a good look at him.

"What do you have?" asked the schoolar, breaking his brains over what was ailing the young boy and causing such a disrupt in the Stark family live, scaring even the children. He had tried the most common diseases he could think of… then he remembered one book he hasn´t tried. The strangest diseases in Westeros, from archmaester Ebrose. He grabbed it from the shelf and started to pass the pages. He froze when he realised that there was one that actually englobed all of Jon´s symptoms.

But… but it couldn´t be. The page said that it affected only… and Lord Stark… Ashara Dayne… or was she not… it was the only explanation… this sickness…

He stared at the boy, then made counts backwards from his nameday to the possible moment of the apparent conception, trying to piece it together. Then he noticed that the possible day matched exactly one important event for the Stark family, but… Lord Stark was not the Stark involved in it. It was…

"Maester Luwin" a nearly asleep Lord Stark entered the room, apparently unable to sleep. His wife, heir and brother followed him, one with a scold and one with a worried expression, much like himself. "Has there been a change?" he asked, then noticed the book he was holding. "Did you find out what is happening to my son?"

"Lord Stark" he said in a paused tone, closing the book and putting it on a nearby table, his suspicious eyes on the man in front of him. "If I am going to be threating this sickness, I want you to be honest with me" he breathed in and out once. "Who is Jon Snow´s mother?"

"What?" Robb asked, not knowing where this was coming from. "What does that have to do with my brother´s condition?"

"If you are asking if she was a sickly woman, no, she was not" he said, thinking about his sister and her husband. Both were perfectly healthy… at least bodily. Mentally, he would not bet. After all, both were thoughtless fools that plumbed the realm into war for love. "If there is nothing else…"

"No, Lord Stark, I´m not asking about her medical condition, I´m asking for her identity" the forwardness of this statement surprised them all, even Catelyn. What was hoping the master to achieve. "Look, believe I know what he has, but I need a confirmation if I´m going to treat him for this disease. It´s… it´s a hereditary condition."

"A… hereditary condition?" asked Robb, without understanding. Was maester Luwin worried that his brother´s mother had passed him some sort of incurable condition? By his side, his mother bit her lips. She had always cursed the bastard and his mother for tempting Ned into her bed, to the point of even desiring his death once, but she quickly repented. She felt monstrous for that and since then she hadn´t mentioned the boy´s name, not even in her mind. Besides her, Ned passed a nervous hand through his hair. First the madness and now this. Couldn´t Targaryen blood bring more problems? Benjen was of the same reaction, wondering how the dragonlords managed to keep themselves on the Throne with so many problems in their blood.

"Can´t you just threat him if you know…"

"If I´m wrong, it could be quite problematic" in reality, Luwin only wanted a straight answer from the Lord for a question he already answered in his mind. One that could be monumental for everyone. "So, my lord…"

"It´s just that…"

"For the old gods and the new, Ned, just tell them!" his younger brother exploded, not knowing what else to do. "Your heir is old enough to know, your wife deserves to know and you trust the maester with your life. I don´t think any of them would betray us." He glared at Catelyn, who shrunk a bit, feeling she had done something wrong. "I told you to tell them ages ago."

"It´s a bit difficult to trust someone with this"

"For the gods, the maester already knows. What difference does two people you trust in?" Eddard stared at his brother for a few minutes before walking to the door, making sure no one was listening to them and closing it carefully. Then he turned to the few people gathered in the room besides the sickbed. He bore a serious expression that only meant that the Lord of Winterfell was in charge of this exchange.

"Swear right this instant that you won´t share a word of what it´s said in this room" Catelyn and Robb stared at them as if he was asking them to bring him the moon. "Just do it, what it´s going to be said must never leave this place, otherwise we can get killed" they did it quickly, pronouncing the most binding oath. "Jon… he is not mine" Cat´s eyes nearly fell off her face. Years of suffering his husband´s bastard… and now he was not his? How could he do this to her? "He is… my sister´s son… with Rhaegar Targaryen."

"How could you?" the Tully woman said, nearly falling to the ground with the weight of this knowledge. "You brought that… that rapespawn to our home and named him yours despite knowing that we could all lose our heads if this reaches the king…"

"You don´t understand, Lyanna made me swore in her deadbed that I will protect her boy" they all stared at him as if he was crazy. "Lya was never enamoured with the idea of marrying Robert, who she openly despised. She then met that idiot Rhaegar, who shared some of her interests and started an affair with him" he glared at his brother. "An affair Benjen condoned enough to help her keep the correspondence between the lovebirds secret, get rid of the guards and elope with the Dragon Prince."

"What…"

"In my defence" the ranger began, returning the gesture. "Rhaegar was a better match for her like he was than your idiot whoremonging friend. Who, as I predicted, still dishonours his wife on daily basis!"

"Okay, you were right, it was an stupidity to propose the match to father. There! Are you happy now?!" Robb stared at his father and uncle with amazement and fear, having never witnessing a fight between them. What was happening here? Then his father turned to the maester, who didn´t seem surprised at all. "You didn´t seem surprised at all. How did you find out?"

"The appearance of firebreath fever was a mayor clue, but I also made counts. Once I put the numbers in order, it wasn´t hard to have a plausible suspicion on the paternity and considering the time of Lady Lyanna´s elopement… it fit very well."

"What is that fever?" asked Eddard.

"Firebreath fever, an hereditary disease that affects a certain portion of the Valyrian population. For seven days the body burns as if it is on fire, but if we are capable to stabilize the body temperature for the whole seven, the patient should be fine" Luwin picked up his book. "The thing about the sickness is that it´s very rare, even between the Valyrians. Only the most conserved lineages carry it, mostly but not limited to House Targaryen" he put more ice into the bath. "The disease suggested a highly conserved Valyrian heritage, and you never crossed a Celtigar or Velaryon maid, the other families highly susceptible to the firebreath. It could only be a Targaryen, but Queen Rhaella and Princess Rhaenys were crossed and there was no other maiden with enough pure Targaryen blood to pass this condition to her son… it could only be Lady Lyanna."

"Gods" Ned sat down near his nephew, holding his burning hand. "More days of this? Wouldn´t my sister´s blood protect him?"

"Considering how inbreed Targaryens are, it wouldn´t be a surprise that the first generation after adding new blood presented it, but their descendants don´t" Luwin sighed, putting a bag of ice on the boy´s forehead. Being helped by a worried Robb. "Lord Stark… be ready for the possible consequences. This fever might not be lethal or leave permanent mental damage if handled correctly, but… there might be consequences."

"Like what?" Benjen asked, sending his brother another glare. Did it really have to be like this? Did Eddard really needed a near fatal disease to tell the truth? And what consequences?

"Well, according to archmaester Ebrose, there are some cases in which the affected presented eye decoloration, so his eye colour might change a bit" said the man, making the heir shook his head. Lord Stark sat down weakly near his burning hot nephew, passing a hand through his hair with care. His eyes locked with his brother´s, who was sending him a silent message with his own that spelled bad news.

"Ned… I won´t take him to the Wall" the other finally said, breathing out while trying to calm down. "I know what you will say, but I simply can´t allow Lyanna´s boy to pay for a crime he didn´t commit. If you want someone to pay for the elopement…"

"Do you really think so low of me, brother?" the Lord finally said, his eyes as hard as when he was executing a prisoner. "I wanted to send Jon to the Wall because it is one of the few save places for him to be. There he will pose no danger to anyone on the Throne, so no one would even have a second thought about…"

"That´s bullshit and you know it. Oaths never stopped men like Tywin Lannister from doing something about a problematic situation. He would eradicate the danger at the Wall without remorse like the despicable child killer he is." His younger brother caressed his nephew´s hair. "The answer is simple, you can´t leave…"

"No" Catelyn talked for the first time since finding out the truth of her stepson… nephew by marriage. She seemed to less hostile to the boy, but even so she was icy. "There could be no doubts about our loyalty, especially in this dangerous situation. You need to go to King´s Landing and act as Hand. As for the… boy" she stared at the burning boy. "if your brother won´t take him to the wall, your sister´s bastard can very well go to any of your bannermen. I just don´t want him here, that´s all I ask."

"Ehhhhh… Catelyn…"

"I won´t hear anything more. As soon as he is recovered enough, he goes and so do you, understood?" in a murmur of silks, she walked away, banging the door in her leave. The woman was so angry that the men in the room decided to leave her alone instead of telling her anything else.

"I… I will send a letter to the Mormonts with an offer of fostering" said the heir of Winterfell. "they never had the same issues with bastards as the other houses and are most likely to accept quickly" he got up, eager to avoid more problems in the household he would be left alone to govern. "With your permission, father"

The three adults were left alone with the agonizing teenager, wondering what was going to happen. Meanwhile, nearly consumed by an internal fire, Jon dreamed of dragons…

-A few days later-

"Are you sure you are good enough for this?" said Robb, taking a training sword along with his brother… cousin… whatever. He was worried, as the other boy had just recovered from the firebreath fever a few days before and was still a little bit shaky because of the high body temperatures his body was forced to endure. A pair of hetercromatic eyes, one grey and another purple, stared at him in mock.

"What, Stark? Afraid that I will beat you on my last day here?"

"Of course not" the boys smiled at each other and walked into the ring. Let´s forget about treason and politics for a second and just enjoy this. Like when they were children…

I have read a lot of purple eyed Jon´s fics lately and this sparkled in my mind, so I wanted to write one before the year was ended. Hope you have enjoyed it! Happy new year to everyone and good luck in 2020. Review!


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